The notion of fascism in Moldova is used by politicians not only with the aim of polarizing society. By promoting the notion of fascism, they try to present it as a phenomenon in order to distract attention from such social problems as corruption, poverty and unemployment, expert Sergiu Ostaf, who is the executive director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CreDO), said in the public debate “More frequent use of the notion of ‘fascism’ in internal, external and regional contexts: real and invented motives, goals, dangers and solutions” that was organized by IPN Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.

“If we analyze who uses this tag most often and in relation to whom, we see that there is a large number of actors who use this notion to polarize things. Tactics are used to cultivate radical behaviors in order to polarize society and determine or justify the movement of social groups against this phenomenon that is inexistent in fact. Propaganda is used to substitute particular notions and social problems,” stated Sergiu Ostaf.

He noted that those who carry out activities to combat fascism must be conscious that they represent genuine organizations and can combat it only by education, use of democratic institutions and the respect for the law. People should be more responsible when using such tags. “It’s important to question the statements of experts when they draw mistaken conclusions,” said Sergiu Ostaf.

He also said that there are MPs who decided that using such a notion is opportune because it represents an international trend. But such behavior is counterproductive for the country’s independence and statehood.

The debate “More frequent use of the notion of ‘fascism’ in internal, external and regional contexts: real and invented motives, goals, dangers and solutions” is the 29th of the series “Development of political culture in public debates”, organized by IPN together with Radio Moldova and supported by Germany’s Hanns Seidel Foundation.